Page 90 of House of Deceit

She tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear and suddenly I’m in my house. She sits on the couch engrossed in a book as the sun is setting through the windows, the ocean glinting like diamonds. I come home, but she doesn’t notice, so ensnared by the world within the pages. We would talk about our days, cook dinner together, and then make love unhurriedly before finally drifting off to sleep.

The vision is so vivid I’m disoriented coming back to the current moment as she squeals.

“They would pay me to sample their coffee and try to get people to buy it? What a dream.”

She hugs the offer to her chest, seeming much lighter than she was only moments ago.

“Basically.” My fingers twitch as I try to ignore the impulse to touch her. “Can I kiss you?”

Her arms drop and she looks at me, a sexy little smirk on her mouth.

“You never need to ask,” she says, reaching out to me.

Her lips are soft, intoxicating, and I sink deeper, willing to drown in this woman.

The dressing room is quiet as I struggle with the tight purple spandex. I jump, trying to pull the material up over my ass. Slipping my arms through the straps, I notice the giant “C” in the middle of my chest. Less physical challenges allow for production to dress us up in more fun outfits and this one is definitely my favorite. Grabbing the cape off my wardrobe and affixing it to the Velcro on the straps of my suit, I look in the mirror and laugh.

Everyone turns to me, checking out my outfit before shifting their attention back to their own wardrobe.

There’s less friendly ribbing now as we get ready for the competition. With only three more elimination challenges, including this one, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The half million dollars is becoming much more real. Half of those of us remaining will be in the finale. No one will admit it, but we all watch the others wondering who it’ll be.

I’m spending more and more time taking notes of the various things I see and hear from other contestants in my notebook. Each night, I also open to a random page and try to memorize everything on the page for the last competition.

One day, at the very beginning, we all talked about what we would do if we won the game as we got dressed.

“I would pay off my student loans,” Jayden says, uncharacteristically going first.

“That’s so boring,” Penelope says, rolling her eyes.

“Most people would probably do something similar. I would take myself and my Byron on a nice little vacation and then set the grandbabies up for their future,” Sharon says.

“Is Byron your husband?” Mary Ella asks, holding her hand over her heart. If she was any more earnest, I’d think it was a farce. But I believe she really is just naive.

“Byron is my Schnauzer.”

“Oh,” Mary Ella responds, her face falling with disappointment, causing us all to laugh.

“I would finally get started on my car collection. A 1969 Ford Mustang Mach. 1 would be first on that list,” Lucas says, jumping in. Everyone just looks around like we know what that means.

Keith speaks up in the silence. “I’m going to build my wife her dream home. She has always wanted a greenhouse with a view of our land and I would want to give that to her. I’ll build her that and fill it with every plant she could want.”

“Well, I want a vaginal rejuvenation,” Penelope says.

“What the hell is a vaginal rejuvenation?” Keith asks.

My eyes glaze over after about twenty minutes of talking about vaginas and the various ways they can be rejuvenated. I was never self-conscious about my vagina before, but now I’m reconsidering.

“Have you heard of any of this?” I ask Raven, who is sitting next to me as we pull on our socks and shoes.

“Oh, yeah, hasn’t everyone?” she asks, sarcastically.

“I have never once thought about the length of my pussy lips, but what if every partner I’ve had has noticed it? What if they are abnormally long? Maybe I should make an appointment when I get home.”

“I’d be happy to take a look for you later, if you want,” Lucas says, leaning over from my other side. He gives me what I believe he thinks of as a devilish smile but looks more like he’s trying not to be sick after taking a shot with his friends.

“I’m gonna pass on that.”

“Why don’t you try Penelope? Apparently, she has a lot of thoughts on the status of her vagina,” Raven says to him.

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